feel good food that's good for you

Tropical Matcha Yogurt Breakfast Bowl is loaded with sweet juicy fruit, toasted seeds and coconut for a refreshing, energising and healthy way to start your day.

Now that the days are getting a bit longer, brighter, and a tad warmer (!), I’m easing away from porridge and embracing cool, fruity breakfast bowls. Sometimes these are literally just a few dollops of thick, full-fat yogurt, a handful of thawed berries and a palmful of toasted nuts. Maybe, if I’m feeling especially hungry, I’ll top it with a handful of one of my granola mixes. This could also be my evening snack or a solo supper if I’ve not had this for breakfast. Easy, delicious, healthy and filling.

Today’s Tropical Matcha Yogurt Breakfast Bowl is all of these attributes. And more.

My “Liquid Battery”

One thing I always have for breakfast is matcha tea. I’m not rigid or set in my ways about many things, but I really love my morning matcha. Where most people start their day with a hot cup of coffee, mine starts with a large glass of cold matcha tea. I use my otherwise redundant milk frother to suspend the insoluble, antioxidant-rich powder in cold water, and I spike it with fresh lemon. I then slowly drink this rather pond water-looking concoction over the course of an hour, occasionally disturbing the silty green bottom with a spoon to “revive” it. This probably sounds pretty weird to most of you but, for me, it acts as a liquid battery. I love the way it tastes – slightly astringent and grassy-sweet. And I really love how it makes me feel – alive!

Quite a number of years ago I published a similar recipe on which today’s post is based. And it went a little viral. Or viral for the time and viral for me. It was picked up by the likes of Buzzfeed and Huffington Post (Canadian edition), as well as other online publications from around the world. I still get traffic for it today.

I seriously doubt I will get so lucky with this Tropical Matcha Yogurt Breakfast Bowl version, but I really wanted to share it with you, especially if you didn’t seen it the first time around. It’s a keeper.

Why Matcha?

As you no doubt know, matcha is carefully dried and powdered shade-grown green tea leaves. Usually drunk hot, matcha is renowned for its calming yet energising effects – a gentle wakey-wakey to coffee’s ear-splitting alarm.

Once available only to those in Japan and China, matcha is now found everywhere and in nearly everything. From pancakes to ice cream, and noodles to hummus – it’s flipping everywhere. I’ve put matcha in this Japanese-influenced Matcha Frozen Yogurt (it is amazing!), these Almond Blondies, Granola Bites (with Yuzu Drizzle, mmm), and this old-skool Mega-Green Smoothie Julius. Just a little powder is needed to have both a nutritional and taste impact. Which is just as well cos the good stuff – and I recommend the good stuff – ain’t cheap.

matcha frozen yogurt by food to glow

Luckily the taste of good matcha powder blends very well with the creaminess and acidity of the yogurt in my matcha yogurt breakfast bowl. And even better when tropical fruits and toasted seeds are added in. The plant compounds in the tea interact with the natural sugars in yogurt to make it taste even sweeter. So, if you normally think yogurt needs to be sweetened, adding matcha might just keep you from reaching for the honey pot.

The buzz comes from the matcha not the bee. :-). Besides, it turns the yogurt a rather fetching shade of green.

Still not onboard with matcha? The following might convince you.

6 Proven Benefits of Matcha (and one not proven)

1 Calm Alertness Because matcha is made from the whole leaf it will have more caffeine and more antioxidants than leaf green tea. But, there is another compound called L-theanine that is also increased. It acts as a counterweight to the side effects of caffeine. Like caffeine, L-theanine is a stimulant, but this particular neuro-transmitting amino acid increases alertness and focus – without the jitters that caffeine can bring.

I can’t “do” caffeine, and have always envied those that can drink cup after cup of coffee to keep them awake. My world changed when I discovered that matcha had all of the upsides of caffeine but none of the downsides.

2 High in Antioxidants Matcha is replete with a significant class of antioxidant plant compounds known as catechins. Antioxidants help stabilise excess free radicals, those naturally occurring compounds that cause inflammation, cell damage, and lead to many chronic disease. Matcha appears to be hugely efficient at preventing inflammation and subsequent cell damage. Studies have linked green tea – and matcha in particular – to a variety of health benefits.

3 Boosts Brain Function Research has shown that L-theanine not only relaxes and induces a state of well-being, it also boosts brain function. Specifically, concentration and cognition. Who doesn’t need a bit of that?

4 Stress Reducer L-theanine is the compound cited as not only increasing alertness but also calming nerves. A recently published small study of matcha demonstrated that “Anxiety, a reaction to stress, was significantly lower in the test-matcha group than in the placebo group.” There are other studies that support this property.

5 Potential Cancer Preventative This is a big, big subject that would take ages to do justice to. But there are numerous studies of animals and human cells supporting the idea that various compounds in matcha inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Breast, liver, lung, skin, colorectal and prostate cancers have and are actively being studied. This recent academic journal article gives a good overview of what is currently known.

6 Heart Protector Studies indicate that the compounds in green tea generally help protect against several heart disease risk factors. This scholarly article elucidates the most recent findings.

Green tea and matcha are often touted as aiding weight loss. The evidence for this patchy. The most robustly conducted studies show that any weight loss is generally statistically insignificant, with amounts not reaching clinical relevance. Take a look at this review paper for more information. However, it is known that both caffeine and L-theanine induce thermogenesis in mammals (production of heat, leading to weight/fat loss). Here is an article explaining what is currently known about weight loss and green tea. Here is a pdf link about green tea and thermogenesis.

Now that you are completely besotted with the idea of matcha, here is one of the nicest ways to enjoy it. Let me know how you like it, would you? Oh, and if you want to try the one I like the best (it’s amazing stuff – no bitterness at all), here is my affiliate link for Kineta organic Japanese matcha tea. I bet it will be the best matcha that you’ve ever bought.

Whether on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or of course here on the blog, I love to see what you do with my recipes, and I welcome your comments, star ratings, tweaks and suggestions on this Tropical Matcha Yogurt Breakfast Bowl, and any of my other 600+ recipes.

Also, if you’ve made/intend to make this recipe, please do consider rating it as it will make this recipe more visible on search engines. To do so, click the appropriate star underneath the small photo on the recipe card, below. Thank you!**

Instructions

Mix the yogurt and matcha tea together in a serving bowl. Set aside.

Heat a skillet or ribbed griddle pan over a medium heat and add the pumpkin seeds and coconut flakes to it. When you hear a few of the seeds pop - and possibly jump out of the pan, tip the seeds and coconut flakes to a plate to cool.

Slice 4-6 "planks" of pineapple and lay in the hot griddle pan/skillet. Heat, turning once, until you have nice grill marks or darkened patches. Remove from the heat to cool a bit, and then add them to the yogurt.

Take the passion fruit and cut it in half. Use a small spoon to scoop out the seeds and any loose stringy bits. Add these juicy seeds to the yogurt bowl.

Use a melon baller or small spoon to scoop soft, cool balls or curls of the papaya; add these to the bowl.

Me again with a n o t h e r question! How do I know if the matcha I purchased is “the good stuff”? I think it was expensive but had never purchased it before so really don’t have any frame of reference. And I like to think my local health food stores properly vet their wares but I don’t imagine that’s always true.

Lori, I’d look online at reviews. Here in the UK I rate Kineta (I’ve linked to it), Vitalife, Teapigs, Clearspring. But reviews will give an indication of how green (deeper green indicating quality and lack of oxidisation) and the taste. Some are lightly grassy with an almost creamy-sweet taste (Kineta is great for this) while others are quite bitter or astringent. Ceremonial grade is by best for drinking but so-called culinary grade is best for baking and cooking as it is stronger tasting. I hope this helps!

This looks amazing – I love the yellow and green colours – I would be curious to try this with dragon fruit which I seem to see everywhere just now and would fit the tropical theme. The passionfruit and grilled pineapple sound wonderful too.

Beautiful matcha bowl Kellie! I will never give up my morning coffee, but I do enjoy a cup of matcha tea in the afternoon from time to time 🙂 I can’t believe I’ve never thought to add it to a smoothie bowl before-such a great idea, and so pretty too!

I'm Kellie, an ex-pat American cancer health educator with a taste for global food - and big flavours - made with fresh, seasonal British ingredients. Food To Glow is mainly 'plant-based', but you will find the occasional decadent treat - usually with a healthy tweak. Although I'm an omnivore, I speak fluent vegan: most of my non-vegan recipes will have vegan alternatives, as well as gluten-free and soft food diet options where appropriate. All recipes are tested out on family, friends and/or my cancer nutrition classes at the Maggies Cancer Caring Centres. You are very welcome to read, comment and share!

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